Shadow Slave

Usually, it would have taken Kai a lot longer to fly across the city to reach the tranquil terrace district… not that he would have. But today, the famous idol neglected his habit of staying low and out of sight. It seemed that his speed increased tremendously, as well, because ten minutes later, he was already at Sunny's door.

Maybe because of that, there was no crowd of paparazzi following him.

As they waited for Cassie, Effie rummaged through the empty refrigerator, then walked away from it with a disappointed sigh.

"There's no food!"

Sunny, who was evaluating the damage the boisterous huntress had done to the guest bedroom, glanced at her darkly.

"We've been gone for months. What did you expect?"

Effie made a sad face, then shrugged.

"But I'm hungry!"

Sunny let out an exasperated breath.

"...I have some synthpaste, if you want."

She shuddered and opened her mouth to retort, but at that moment, there was a knock on the door. If not for the haughty shadow standing guard outside — reluctantly, of course, since mundane tasks such as this were grossly beneath it — Sunny would have tensed up.

However, he already knew that it was Cassie.

The blind girl walked inside, froze for a moment, then raised a deliciously smelling package.

"...I brought food."

glance at

has

stare at the archer for

his looks assumed an almost hypnotizing quality.

a different degree. After studying Kai and Cassie for a bit, Sunny couldn't help but shake his head ruefully,

felt wrong to put the word average in one sentence with someone like her. Jet possessed an intangible quality that no one he had ever met was able to match.

And Sunny himself?

wasn't sure that he qualified to be considered a flower boy, as Soul Reaper had once predicted, but even he couldn't call himself unassuming anymore. The scrawny kid from the outskirts was gone. Instead, a young man with porcelain skin and

visible only to Sunny himself, golden threads of Weaver's

four of them settled around the table and shared a silent

seemed too joyous… well, except for Effie, who couldn't stop grinning and stealing glances

just felt… hurt,

the Nightmare, there was no time for weakness. They had to carry on no matter how deep the wounds dealt to their souls cut. Now that the danger had passed and the members of the cohort were back in the real

Red Colosseum, the nightmares, the assault on the Ivory City… all of it

their share of demons to quell,

while, Kai poured himself a cup of

remember much

fork and stared at the archer with a

what? You were swallowed by

Kai smiled with embarrassment:

of… jumped into his mouth. Because I didn't know how else to kill

Effie blinked a few times, but didn't say anything. She even forgot about her food

down,

deception because he had assumed that I would not trust anyone with the knives, I think. After you killed the dragon, there was no real reason for him to stay. He left to salvage at least some rewards

grew quiet for a few